Tn. gasoline all is putting %10 ethenol in it now and it didn't seem to affect the miledge when they switched so I tried topping off with e-85 the other day and it took about 5 galons to fill up. Driving it like that didn't seem to change the way it drove at all so I got real brave today and filled up an empty tank with straight e-85 before a 100 mile highway run for a controlled test. Previously with 93 ocatne @ 75 mph I got 27 mpg. Today driving 75 mph on e-85 it got 25 mpg on the same stretch of road the previous test was done on.
The e-85 was 80cents a gallon cheaper than 93 at the same station. 25 mpg at 3.00 = 12 cents per mile. 27 mpg at 3.80 = 14.07 cents per mile
I am sure I could run up the compression with the e-85 also and that would help. I bought some mopar thin head gaskets and will probably get .060 milled from the heads when I put them on and have a straight up alcholic engine.
As for how it runs with the straight e-85 the only differance I noticed was a tad softer sound from the exhaust, normaly it is pretty raspy under heavy acceleration.
I am not causing global warming, I am just trying to hold off a impending Ice Age!
